The Mount St. Mary's men's lacrosse team defeated VMI, 18-12, in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference shootout in Lexington, Va., on Saturday afternoon. Sophomore Pat Beall (Mount Airy, Md./Glenelg) scored a career-high five goals to lead the Mount to the win.

Beall put the Mount (3-6, 3-3 MAAC) on the board 1:35 into the game when he converted a Jay Duffy (Bel Air, Md./John Carroll) feed. Freshman Eric Seifert (Dover, Del./Caesar Rodney) added his 11th goal of the season 32 seconds later to give the Mount a 2-0 lead. After a VMI (0-7, 0-5 MAAC) goal from Will Collier, Matt Warner (Corning, N.Y./Corning East) gave the Mount a 3-1 lead. The Keydets, however, answered with goals from Tim Erwin and Erik Rohrmann to tie the score, 3-3, after the first quarter.

The Mount took control of the game early in the second quarter, scoring four times in a span of 1:49 for a 7-3 lead. Beall scored twice while Warner and Joe Bello (Westerville, Ohio/St. Charles Prep) scored during the streak. David Trimble and Dan Belzer cut the Mount lead to 7-5, but the Mount answered with four more consecutive goals for a commanding 11-5 lead. Billy Jautze (Setawket, N.Y./Ward Melville) started the streak, followed by another Beall tally. Jason Werner (Severn, Md./Severna Park) then followed with consecutive goals. Matt Dixson's goal for VMI made the score 11-6 at the half.

The Keydets scored the first two goals of the third quarter, but Warner tallied his third of the day on a Jautze assist for a 12-8 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth, Beall gave the Mount a 13-8 edge, but Joe Picariello and Tony Cavalero scored to cut the deficit to 13-10 with 10:28 remaining.

The Mount then sealed the win with five straight goals. Duffy, Warner, Bello, Seifert and Warner all scored for the Mount in that run. VMI scored twice in the final 1:28 to close out the scoring.

Warner had four goals and two assists on the day for the Mount to take over the team scoring lead at 26 points (15g, 11a). Beall added five goals, Jautze a goal and three assists, Werner three goals and Seifert two goals and an assist. Rohrmann led VMI with three goals and an assist in the game.

Dan Whitehurst (Woodstock, Md./Centennial) made 14 saves in goal to earn the win while Matt Hook made 16 saves for VMI in the loss. Kyle Daddio was an impressive 18-for-24 in the face-off circle for the Mount, collecting 15 ground balls in the game.

The Mount returns to action on Sat., April 17, when Penn State visits Alumni Field for a 2:00 p.m. game.